Tag Archives: Forum for the Future

When I joined BAMA a year ago I was fortunate enough to inherit a substantial piece of work called the Future of Aerosols 2 project, a follow-up to the original Future of Aerosols 1 project which was completed in 2001. This first programme focused on technical subjects and solutions to see the aerosol industry into the 21st century.

For BAMA, sustainability and especially environmental sustainability has for decades been at the heart of what we do. During the Future of Aerosols 2 project, BAMA worked with Forum for the Future who reinvigorated our own thinking about environmental sustainability and also made recommendations about how companies should work towards a sustainable future within their own business environments. Examples are: persuading companies to consider how social media might impact on aerosol products; or the effect of the skills gaps within the aerosol industry.

BAMA, via its Committees, will be working on a number of Innovation themes to help our industry tackle some key issues including:
• The Circular Economy
• Air Quality – both indoor and outdoor
• Addressing Chemicals of Concern
• Using Aerosols to Meet Human Health Needs
• Harnessing the Power of Social Media
• Creating Flexible and Resilient Supply Chains.
Each of these themes is now developing into work areas for the Committees.

As part of the work-stream of the Future of Aerosols, Forum for the Future consulted widely across industry to understand the factors which our members felt would have an effect on their business in the coming years. These were then developed into Factor Cards which detailed the background of the issues, providing information and data to help people understand the impact of these factors in greater depth.

At workshops, BAMA members studied these factors and decided which were most important to the wider aerosol industry. These were then prioritised and put into an Impact/Uncertainty Matrix. From here the groups could narrow down the themes to those shown above and also run Innovation Sessions to think about how we might bring about solutions to these themes. This Future Thinking process is now available to all BAMA members – free of charge.

The toolkit used by BAMA Members in this study can be downloaded from the Community Area of the BAMA website, along with the report BAMA is working through.

We at BAMA believe this is an excellent opportunity for companies, big and small, to take a step back from their day-to-day business and think about the challenges they might face in the next 10 or 20 years. The Factors used cover such a broad spectrum of subjects the Future Thinking process could be applied in one area of your business, say R&D or manufacturing, or more widely, to review and consider how you want your company to develop and grow in the future.

To help with Future Thinking, BAMA will moderate and facilitate workshops at members companies, also free of charge. All we ask for is a big enough room and a couple of days from a group of your staff to take the process through.

If this is of interest, please contact us and we can discuss helping you to Future Proof your business.